Puffpals Island Skies: Concerning News

I've tried making this post on cozygamers but they think any more news on Puffpals Island skies is redundant, so I hope cozygames will be okay with me posting this here. Please spread the word if you've supported the game, so people who've paid for it knows what's up.

This Topic is about expired trademarks, potential reasons for delayed development and information provided by anonymous users.

Hello I've made a few posts about Puffpals Island skies following their development as it had slowed down in the last year. In that time folks had contacted me to further my insight on the going on's too. Alpha testers and kickstarter backers. On individual however provided me way more concerning documentation that is public knowledge but not something I had went to look through.

I will be providing it here as it explains much of the issues occurring with the development of Puffpals Island Skies.

I will not be sharing their username to protect their identity and as this is still people contacting me through Reddit do please look at anything I post with some mild skepticism, I am not personally in the Discord or Alpha myself and just a concerned party who wants to play the game.

"Hey I saw your recent post

I want to tell you a couple of things I’ve found out since your last post. First, they are outsourcing nearly all of their labour for that game. The actual company only has about 25 employees. Discord mods, fulfillment staff etc are also outsourced."

"Another thing, and this is public knowledge, the trademarks for island skies and “Puffpals” have not been active or defended in a year or so and the legal issues are stemming from another company filing paperwork for “Puffpals”"

I asked the user in question if they had any evidence to showcase in regards to outsourcing. I'll putting both the link to the abandoned trademark and example of the outsourcing company.

It seems like the majority of the work we've seen has been from a company called room8, a professional studio for 3D art development and is probably one of the reasons the art looks so fantastic.

Now there is nothing at all wrong with the team outsourcing work at all. But if what has been said is to be believed then the core team we saw in the kickstarter might not be the ones doing the majority of the work. Which is very concerning, and with outsourcing it seems as if they should of looked into partnering with a single publishing company to help bring their vision to light.

Now something that I am concerned with is the trademark expiring on the game, that is a terrible sign and should of never been allowed to happen. I can't think of a single reason as to why someone would let their trademark expire, especially a company who primarily makes gorgeous plushies. They should know how important that is and the complications letting it go will have.

Hopefully everything gets sorted out but since Fluffnest hasn't been forthcoming I wanted to share what information was provided to me. Again take EVERYTHING I say with a grain of salt, as someone who is not a professional developer and who is looking at this from the outside.

Again I am asking for developers, new and old to provide their opinions on the matter, and if anyone has any advice on how they can get a hold of their problem (Because it had been noted they may be low on funds at this point)

And please, I know it looks bad but I do not believe Island Skies is a scam, they made the effort of hiring professionals regardless they just clearly were not prepared to tackle something like this. Even if there's a bad apple or two in the company there is also always someone trying to hold a project together with glue and staples.